The Unexpected Growth of Sumo Betting

Ah, Sumo. A sport most people know about, but few actually understand. While for much of the Western world, sumo is a contest where two overweight, unathletic people push each other in a circle in a diaper-looking thing; it is actually a sport that enjoys great reverence in Japan and is the country’s national one. In this form of full-contact wrestling, one wrestler, or Rikishi, tries to force his combatant outside of a circular ring by pushing, shoving, or throwing him out of it.

The origin of the word sumo goes back to sumau or sumafu, a verb that means fight or compete. The written form stems from sumai no sechi, which refers to striking each other. We must point out that sumo is also used as a broad term in Japan to refer to any type of wrestling in this country. Japanese historians claim that the first instance of sumo ever getting mentioned in writing dates back to 712 and that this sport’s roots come from a ritual dance performed by farmers in hopes of inducing a quality harvest.

In modern-day Japan, this sport gets regulated by the Japan Sumo Association, an organization founded in 1925, which is a governing body that oversees all pro sumo forms, acting as a non-profit, an organization of public interest.

Despite what people may think, sumo is not only still relatively popular in Japan, according to many, it is actually enjoying a boom period of sorts, with many top competitions getting sold out days, even weeks before they happen. Yet, strangely, even with strong audience showings, in 2024, Japan saw the least number of prospects going pro since 1973.

However, with older adults in Japan feeling nostalgia for simpler times and this sport’s events becoming available for betting on many online platforms, such as our reviewed Roobet, Crashino, and Bruno Casino, many believe that it will experience a resurgence, something that is already occurring.

Japan’s Anti-Gambling Stance & the Rise of Sumo Betting

Anyone familiar with the Land of the Rising Sun knows it has historically held a rigid stance on gambling. It has long maintained a cautious stance toward legalizing any form of betting, with its political parties believing that doing this will undermine much of the social and cultural values the nation has upheld for centuries. Still, some forms of wagering are allowed in Japan, such as gambling on horse, bicycle, and boat races. Moreover, pachinko, a plinko-like pinball version, is a mainstay in most arcades, despite these machines’ odd similarity to slot play in terms of the randomness in how they produce round outcomes.

So, sumo is currently not a part of the Japanese legal betting landscape. Nonetheless, top-end online sports betting solution providers such as BETBY offer it as part of their sportsbook software. With the expansion of streaming services and the Internet supplying sumo tournament coverage like never before, fans of sumo have popped up in Southeast Asia, Europe, and North America. The availability of live streams at betting platforms has also contributed to the growing fascination with this sport throughout the globe.

Why Do Some Bettors Find Sumo Appealing

Outside of Japan, where sumo is part of the cultural fabric, the worldwide attention concerning betting action this sport now sees is primarily owed to its straightforward structure. It is a pretty easy competition type to follow. One guy tries to push the other out of a ring. The one who does this wins the contest. There is no scoring or point-based system such as the 10-point must in MMA or boxing. It is strictly a win/loss format in play here, with the loser being the contestant whose soles or any other body part touches the outside of the ring. This means there are no ties here either.

There are six top annual tournaments in professional Japanese sumo, each lasting fifteen days, where the wrestlers compete once per day. They get ranked on their performance, getting demoted or promoted. There is tiered ranking in sumo, and many of those currently into it got introduced to the sport via anime or its larger-than-life personalities, like Baruto Kaito, the legendary Rikidozan, or Yokozuna, the Street Fighter II character and the WWE wrestler who performed under this same name.

An undervalued factor by those who are not educated in sumo is that this is not only a competition where raw power and technique dominate, but due to its short and intense rounds, there is a high level of inherent unpredictability in sumo. Upsets happen here more so than in boxing, and this adds an extra layer of excitement for bettors.

The main markets available for this sport are match winner, tournament winner, and winning technique, which is a prop wager that is not widely offered. Then there are division champion futures, special record wagers such as performance over time, and you also have ranking bets.

Challenges & the Future of Sumo Betting

Like most combat sports, sumo has also had its match-fixing scandals. One would think that these would be rare because of Japan’s reputation for honorability. Nonetheless, there have been a few high-profile ones, as Sumo is not immune to corruption. That should be especially clear due to the massive power Japanese organized crime, or the Yakuza, has had on Japanese society over the past century.

In 2011, there was a highly publicized match-fixing scandal in which fourteen wrestlers were proclaimed guilty of match-fixing for money. During this investigation, one unnamed ex-wrestler gave a statement for Kyodo News in which he said that it was common practice during his career that wrestlers would throw fights to help top ones reach the rank of Yokozuna and that this was an unspoken agreement in the sphere. Plus, other match-fixing deals would occur in toilets and dressing rooms before matches.

Hence, as sumo’s popularity grows, its wrestlers will be more enticed than ever to fix contests.

The integration of sumo with gambling also raises concerns that it will hurt the sport’s national identity and commercialize/trivialize its sacred history.

It goes without saying that online sportsbooks have helped shed light on what were previously niche sports, and sumo is one of them, as it offers a unique blend of cultural fascination and sports entertainment. Thus, with more live coverage than ever, interactive betting options, and behind-the-scenes looks, expect its gambling establishment to swell and peoples’ emotional investment in bouts to grow.

We assume that sometime in the next decade, Japan will implement a formalized gambling framework that will encompass sumo. That should go a long way in further boosting the sport’s popularity in Japan and beyond.

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